All the people you know either have or had at some point, a body. Is having a physical body a requirement for being a person? When their body dies, it seems that the person doesn't. Because the person has already been defined in your mind, and even though they are no longer in their body, their person still exists, more than simply a memory, but the definition of them as a person that sets them apart from all the other things your mind knows about. So the person part of a person doesn't seem to need the body to be a person. You might say, "well that's just your idea of the person, since they no longer have a body, you can no longer interact with them, so they are no longer a part of the relationship". But is interaction required for a person to be a person? What if they moved far away, do they cease being a person to me?
It might be argued that any relationship with the person after they have died, or have moved far away, is simply an interaction with your idea of the person. But how different is that really than our interactions with the person while they are still living, or close to us? We don't live inside the physical brains of other people, we only relate to them from within our minds, and with our ideas of them. Once we get to know a person we can even seem to know how they would respond to certain questions or circumstance. So even after they are gone we ask ourselves, "What would so and so do?" and our minds access that person and return to us an answer, just as if we had asked the person. What comes first the person or the body?
Is the idea of the person that survives the body still the person? I can't see how it could be argued that it is not. Person-hood is clearly a distinct trait from physical existence. A person is such a clearly defined concept that we can even continue to relate to the person after they have died, or moved far away.
Did their body create their person? Can we create a person who did not first have a body and relate to them similarly? Would not fictional characters fit this definition? Is a fictional character a "real" person in this sense, or does physical life alone set the criteria to be a person? A fictional character is obviously not a human being, but is it a real person? Some of the greatest ones surely seem to be, they "take on a life of their own" so to speak in the minds of the people who relate to them.
If a person can be created by means of fiction, are there persons that exist by other means, other than by means of fiction or by being a human? Are there persons that exist or have existed that never had a body, and were never imagined into existence by another person, only related to by them?
Just some questions I have about persons.
It might be argued that any relationship with the person after they have died, or have moved far away, is simply an interaction with your idea of the person. But how different is that really than our interactions with the person while they are still living, or close to us? We don't live inside the physical brains of other people, we only relate to them from within our minds, and with our ideas of them. Once we get to know a person we can even seem to know how they would respond to certain questions or circumstance. So even after they are gone we ask ourselves, "What would so and so do?" and our minds access that person and return to us an answer, just as if we had asked the person. What comes first the person or the body?
Is the idea of the person that survives the body still the person? I can't see how it could be argued that it is not. Person-hood is clearly a distinct trait from physical existence. A person is such a clearly defined concept that we can even continue to relate to the person after they have died, or moved far away.
Did their body create their person? Can we create a person who did not first have a body and relate to them similarly? Would not fictional characters fit this definition? Is a fictional character a "real" person in this sense, or does physical life alone set the criteria to be a person? A fictional character is obviously not a human being, but is it a real person? Some of the greatest ones surely seem to be, they "take on a life of their own" so to speak in the minds of the people who relate to them.
If a person can be created by means of fiction, are there persons that exist by other means, other than by means of fiction or by being a human? Are there persons that exist or have existed that never had a body, and were never imagined into existence by another person, only related to by them?
Just some questions I have about persons.
